The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-06
Complied for The Arka'asdW Traveller. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

Two French electricians have ob- tained an electric current from metallic foil when unequally heated in a mag netic field.
 At Rome and some other places ir Italy, the curious observation has been made that thermometer in the shade sometimes indicates a higher temper ature than thermometer in the sun particularly when a strong wind strikes the latter instrument.
 At a recent meeting of the London Anthropological Institute, Dr. George Harley sought to prove that the con- ditions which have increased mans comfort and stimulated his mental faculties have lessened his vitality and recuperative powers, making him more liable to fatal injuries.
 Pasteur proves the value ofhis pre- ventive of splenic fever by showing that in France, during the last five years, the mortality of inoculated sheep has ranged from 0.75 to los per cent, that of fnon-inoculated being 10 per cent. Only OPS to 0.50 per cent of inoculated cattle died, and per cent of others.
 So various are the forms of plant life that it seems well-nigh impossi- ble to find spot where some kind oi vegetation will not thrive. Mir. John Ball, a naturalist returned from South America, therefore congratulates him. self on having seen an absolutely plantless land at Tocopilla, about 2 degrees south of the equator, on the rainless west coast. Not so much as 8 lichen could be discovered on the rocks even with microscopic aid.
 FRIEDLANDER's LAMP.-A portable incandescent electric lamp and pri- mary battery, devised by Friedlander ot Berlin, occupy an ebony box four inches long by four inches wide and seven inch s deep. The battery has six cells, each containing pair of zinc and carbon electrodes The solution consists of mixture of chloride of zinc and bichromate of potash. For light of about three candle-power the solution is said to cost about four cents an hour.
 AN ALLEGED ERRoR.-A popular fallacy, according to MT. A. W. Hare of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, is the belief that water from a rushing torrent is safer for drinking purposes than water from sluggish stream, for the reverse is really the fact. Sew age-contaminated water contains few = CT organisms after ten or twelve days than river water, for the reason that the microbes rapid growth during the first two or three days ex- hausts their food supply.
 THE AUSTRALIAN LIoN.-Recent dis coveries have settled the vexed ques- tion of the former existence billions in Australia. Bones from the Yelling ton Caves, New South Wales, are re- garded by Prof. Owen, of the British Museum, as being those of marsupi- al or pouch bearing lion, fully equal in size to the existing African species. These remains were found in connec- tion with those of the Tasmani- an Tiger and Tasmanian Devil. Quite curiously, Prof Owen ma- ny years ago expressed the conviction that certain ancient herbivorous ani- mals of Australia must have been kept in check by co-existent race of lions.
 EARLY SCIENCE.-In the early grop- ings for knowledge the study of eclip- ses he'd a prominent place. Their revolution was calculated by Calip- pus, the Athenian, 336 B. c. The Egyptians said they had accurately observed 373 eclipses of the sun, and S32 of the moon, in the period from Vulcan to Alexander, S23 B. c. The theory of eclipses is said to have been known to the Chinese before 120 B. c. The first eclipse recorded was one of the moon, and was accurately ob- served by the Chaldeans at Babylon March, 19, 72l B. C., at $40 D. m., according to Ptolemy. The lessons sought from eclipses have not all been learned even yet, dnd more expensive expeditions than the ancients could have dreamed of are now sent out for observing total eclipses of the sun, like that which quite number of astronomers hope to view from Rus sian soil on August 19.
 PARLoR PARADoxEs.-Two inter- esting physical experiments are amus- ing French scientific men. In the first, a lighted candle is placed behind a bottle, and the latter is blown upon with the breath from a distance of about foot. The meeting of the air currents set in motion around the bot tie quickly extinguishes the flame, though extinction would be impossible if flat board or sheet of cardboard were substituted for the bottle. For the second experiment two bottles are y,l aoH nn ahla xx-skh o k~1r